Traveling circuses cannot meet the physical, psychological or behavioral needs of wild animals, which suffer severe confinement, social deprivation, long periods of time in transporters, brutal control methods and physical violence

From an early age, elephants are subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment all in the name of entertaining locals as well as tourist populations. The process to break an elephants will and spirit is in itself brutal and macabre

As the country's national symbol, you would expect the people of Thailand to show nothing but respect for their elephants. But the once-majestic beasts are clearly still viewed by some as mere circus performers

Tell the Toronto Councillors they made the correct decision for the welfare of the elephants. They should not be bullied or coerced by tactics to give the zoo more control at the expense of taxpayer who foot the bill for zoo operations.

PETA is hot on President Obama's trail, calling on him, as he travels across the country, to direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to start doing its job properly by confiscating elephants used in circuses such as Ringling Bros

In advance of the Republican National Convention, Without Walls International Church is offering elephant rides on its property throughout this weekend. We need your help to ensure that this cruel event is stopped immediately!

These captive elephants are often beaten, prodded and gouged in sensitive areas with a sharp tool, and kept in chains. Many are denied medical care for serious conditions and are poorly fed. Elephants kept captive under these conditions display unnatural

Without Walls International Church is offering elephant rides on its property for the weekend of the Republican National Convention in Florida. Exhibitors who supply elephants for promotional events to make spectacles out of elephants have a standard

Three elephants inhabit a puny acre at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. Like many other confined elephants, Chai, Bamboo, and Watoto spend their lives on one acre of land. Adding insult to the psychological injury of living as a display, the elephants spend

Since China is the biggest source of demand for ivory, and Apple Corp. has a substantial interest in China utilizing manufacturing facilities there, Apple is in a position to exert substantial pressure on the Chinese to stop the illegal ivory trade.

Piccadilly and other circuses routinely use animals such as elephants (in this case, they also use zebras, making them "dance" usually by cutting near the hooves and/or using chemical burns to make them trot, as well as racing camels and other barbaric fe

We ask the administration of Bowmanville Zoo, Mondo Circus and Parc Safari Hemmingford to immediately end the exploitation of the elephant named Limba. Limba has come to a point in her life in which she needs to be granted the right to retire.

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus is almost in town, and with them they bring animal abuse and cruelty. The circus has years of animal misconduct on its hands, from physical harm to improper feeding. The list goes on.

Rampant poaching in the western wildlife corridor threatens Ghana's few remaining elephants. According to the Ghana News Agency, five elephants were killed in the last year. While local police make the occasional arrest, anti-poaching laws are weak

Despite being informed of Ringling's lengthy history of neglect of and cruelty to animals, MetroPCS continues to promote this notorious circus to its customers by offering free circus tickets. The President of the company needs to take action to end this

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is coming to your town. What a shame. Now and until early next year, trucks or train box cars filled with chained Barnum & Bailey Circus animal "performers" are rolling into cities across the country.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) is considering changing state regulations that currently ban elephant rides. In 2005, the state enacted some of the strictest regulations involving exotic animals.

A proposal to legalize the ivory trade as a way to combat rampant elephant poaching sparked fierce debate at a recent meeting of the Standing Committee of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Twenty-two elephants, ranging in age from young to old, were recently found dead and clumped together in the savanna, each with a single bullet shot to the top of the head. The animals were found to be without their tusks, but with their meat untouched

With China's demand for ivory fueling poaching of the elephant (both the Asian and the Africian elephant), elephant populations in Vietnam have plummeted from 2,000 in 1990, to only a few dozen left in 2012.

There has been a global ban on ivory since 1989, but a new proposal from CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species), proposes to make legal the ivory trade again as a way to combat the increase of poaching of the African elephant

Maria, You signed on July 27, 2012.
Your signature has been delivered to:
John M. Sellar, Chief of Enforcement Support in the CITES Secretariat, International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

When it comes to many Catholic religious totems, there is a devil in the details. Those details just happen to be ivory; and because of the brutal and corrupt methods employed to collect it, the number of elephant deaths in recent years has skyrocketed.

The USDA has been dragging its feet on the updated 2010 Guidelines for the Control of Tuberculosis in Elephants, which are key to protecting elephants and the public from the spread of this dreadful disease. It's been almost two years since

President Benigno Aquino III has received a personal letter from world-renowned animal conservation expert Dr. Jane Goodall. Goodall wrote to the president to support his directive that orders that Mali--the lone elephant suffering without veterinary care

Ontario legislators are considering Bill 69--a bill that would prohibit the use of bullhooks, electric prods, and other devices specifically designed to cause elephants pain as well as the use of chains or ropes to keep elephants restrained.

The Indiana National Guard is planning to host the cruel Great American Family Circus (aka "Liebel Family Circus") on October 4 at the National Guard Armory in Noblesville, Indiana. Liebel is infamous for its rampant animal abuse and violations

In the Ganjam district of Odisha, India, poachers are using homemade electrocution tripwires made from power lines to kill elephants. Of the 295 elephants poached so far this year in Odisha, 61 have died as a result of electrocution

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) is considering changing state regulations that currently ban elephant rides. In 2005, the state enacted some of the strictest regulations involving exotic animals.

After four elephants died between 2006 and 2009 at the Toronto Zoo, in May 2011, the zoo finally decided to end their elephant program, and send their three surviving African elephants elsewhere.

Then, in October 2011, Toronto City Council stepped in to help the elephants and voted 31 - 4 to retire Iringa, Thika and Toka to the beautiful PAWS Sanctuary in California, and I have personally offered to cover the $880,000 cost to fly them there. But since the vote, Toronto Zoo staff have been delaying the move and it seems they now want to bring it back to City Hall to get it reversed.

The delays are putting the elephants' welfare at risk, especially Iringa who suffers from a serious foot infection, the leading cause of death in captive elephants. I think we have to put the needs of Toronto's elephants as the highest priority, and the PAWS Sanctuary is recognized as one of the best elephant facilities in the world.

PETA has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) after someone in the audience sent us this video showing a handler with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' Red Unit hooking and striking an elephant named Luna

Elephants are smart, social animals who need to roam freely in nature. Temples are not forests, and they are not appropriate homes for elephants. Urging the authorities to enforce the decision of the Forest Minister of Maharashtra, so Sunder

A video shot by someone in the audience shows a handler with Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Circus' Red Unit hooking and striking an elephant named Luna with a bullhook weapon for not performing tricks in a timely manner which required her to rear up

Some Great News - 3 Toronto Zoo elephants are moving to California Sanctuary

2 years ago

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I'm recovering from surgery so doing little but had to post this - hope it's the best place to post it - From Change.org

Thanks to people like you, Iringa, Thika and Toka, the Toronto Zoo's aging African elephants, will soon be grazing in the fields of the beautiful PAWS Sanctuary in California.

On Tuesday night, in response to your signatures, phone calls, and emails, Toronto City Council reaffirmed their commitment to moving the elephants by voting 32 to 8 in favour of the move. And Bob Barker, our good friend and animal advocate, is still supporting the move.

Over 26,000 of you signed our petition on Change.org asking Toronto City Council to vote to move the elephants to PAWS. 26,000 of you recognized that seven elephants had died at the zoo prematurely. 26,000 of you recognized Toronto doesn't have a good climate for elephants. And 26,000 of you said we need to put Iringa, Thika and Toka's welfare first.

Zoocheck has been campaigning for the welfare of these elephants for two years. In October 2011, Toronto City Council actually did vote to move the elephants, but the Zoo fought the decision and managed to delay the move, eventually forcing it back to the city council for a second vote. But because of your support at a crucial moment, the city council was able to stand up this week, and say enough is enough.

Thank you, on behalf of Irgina, Thika, Toka and all of us at Zoocheck,

Kenya's Wildlife Service has taken the drastic step of cutting off elephants' tusks as the only means of preventing poaching. What is an elephant without its tusks? And no one knows how these amputations will affect an elephant's place within the group

Mali is a captive elephant in the Philippines' Manila Zoo confined to her barren, concrete enclosure for about 35 years. Mali is the Philippines' only captive elephant - and she hasn't seen another elephant for over 30 years

The carnage is scale: tens of elephant carcasses lie in the National Park Bouba Ndjida in northern Cameroon, on the border with Chad. Their murderers were obviously taken their valuable tusks, designed to supply the ivory trade

A female Asian elephant calf was born Friday, November 30th at the Oregon Zoo in Portland- and she will become the legal property of a private company, Have Trunk Will Travel, of Perris, Calif., which assumes ownership of the newborn within a month.

The San Diego County Fair has stubbornly refused to end its decades-long affiliation with notorious animal abuser Have Trunk Will Travel (HTWT), despite being fully aware of video footage released by Animal Defenders International showing HTWT trainers

The San Diego County Fair has stubbornly refused to end its decades-long affiliation with notorious animal abuser Have Trunk Will Travel (HTWT), despite being fully aware of video footage released by Animal Defenders International.

Send a message to Colleen Carroll, who is prosecuting on behalf of the USDA. Thank Carroll for her work on this case and encourage her to press for the maximum available penalties. We don't want to disrupt Attorney Carroll's office with emails and faxes

We request CITES, the world trade body responsible for issuing Trade Permits of endangered species to: 1) Immediately halt the transfer of any more elephants from Zimbabwe to China. 2) Revoke any permits issued for trade of live caught elephants to Zoos.

With China's demand for ivory fueling poaching of the elephant (both the Asian and the Africian elephant), elephant populations in Vietnam have plummeted from 2,000 in 1990, to only a few dozen left in 2012.

Within the next few days the Zimbabwe authorities will decide whether to transport four to six elephant calves, captured from the wild and removed from their families, to zoos in China. send off 4 letters (sample supplied), please! for the baby elephants!

You can help free Mali! A sanctuary would be able to provide Mali with vast spaces to roam, ponds to bathe in, fresh vegetation, foraging opportunities, and the company of many other elephants. Urge authorities to take immediate action to transfer Mali

The abuse done to baby elephants torn from their mothers, starved for days and beaten whilst tied up is absolutely appalling! Elephants are gentle animals and very family orientated, to lose their mothers and then be treated like this is dreadful.

We need to show the Nepalese that in order to attract tourism back to Nepal, they need to show compassion to the animals - not encourage torture, cruelty and further poaching of elephants from the wild! Please sign!

It is illegal to sell ivory from African elephants in Thailand, but it is completely legal to sell ivory from domestic Thai elephants. Consequently, due to the high demand for ivory, vast quantities of African ivory are being shipped and sold throughout

Mali is a 38-year-old female elephant. She has been living alone in a half-acre enclosure at the Manila Zoo since she was a baby and is now suffering serious health problems as a result of her living situation. Please ask zoo authorities to do the right

China's booming economy and demand for ivory is causing an upsurge of illegal elephant poaching in Kenya. On January 16, 2013, the Washington Post reported that 638 pieces of elephant ivory were seized at Kenya's main port.

Mali has been living alone in the Philippines for 33 years in a small enclosure at the zoo and is also suffering from a number of ailments due to her captivity and age. Mali needs to join other elephants without any further delay and be moved to a sanctua

In January 2012, hundreds of elephants were killed in national park Ndjidah Bouba, Cameroon. This massacre of unprecedented proportions was perpetrated with weapons of war: AK47 and rocket launchers, recalling other massacres in Chad in 2006 and more

We received appalling news from Malaysia this week: In the past four weeks, 14 Borneo pygmy elephants were poisoned in the state of Sabah on the island of Borneo. Oil palm plantation workers reportedly put out rat poison to stop the elephants from eating the fruit of the palm trees.

The ultimate responsibility for the deaths, however, lies with Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman, who is granting ever more concessions for monoculture palm oil plantations on rainforest land – often for his own gain.

Call on the Malaysian government and Sabah’s Chief Minister to end the destruction of rainforests immediately and protect the rare Borneo elephants.

The Bronx Zoo announced in 2006 it would close its elephant exhibit after one or two of the elephants die. The zoo currently has 3 in their Wild Asia exhibit- Patty, Maxine and Happy. Zoo officials say if two die,

UniverSoul Circus is planning to team up with infamous exhibitor Hugo "Tommy" Liebel and feature the suffering elephant Nosey in its upcoming performances in Tampa and Tallahassee this month, despite abundant indisputable evidence of Nosey's decades-long

In November, four elephant calves were caught from the wild, removed from their mothers and family group and exported from Zimbabwe to China. These elephant babies were sent to two zoos in China, Taiyuan Zoo in northern China and Xinjiang Safari Park in

Update: As UniverSoul Circus prepares to force Nosey to perform next week in Tallahassee, Florida, actor Cheryl Hines has written an urgent letter to the manager of the North Florida Fairgrounds imploring him to cancel the ailing elephant's appearances.

Thank you for signing the Care2 Causes petition to help Nosey the elephant. We collected over 28,500 signatures in under two days! Nosey is scheduled to perform beginning on Friday, February 22. We have delivered your signatures to Cedric Walker, CEO of UniverSoul Circus, asking him to cancel her performances. Thanks again for all you do, Piper Hoffman Care2 Causes

Sunder has been denied freedom of movement, and on the rare occasions when he was taken for a short walk at the temple, he was kept in spiked chains. Because of the abusive treatment at the hands of his mahout, Sunder was found by PETA with wounds all ove

Action taken for Sunder. (And this is not the first time I've taken action for this poor elephant!) Sunder has suffered from cruel treatment for far too long. He deserves to be released to a sanctuary NOW.

A new UN report warns that 'The African elephant is facing the greatest crisis in decades...and may soon disappear unless urgent action is taken.' Though this is happening as a result of demand for ivory in Asia, Kenya in particular has become a

The Ringling Brothers circus has quite a history of animal abuse. Today, they continue to use bullhooks, a long stick with a sharp tip and hook on the end, to train and control elephants in the show. Elephants are not given a gentle poke with the instru

The Bronx Zoo announced in 2006 it would close its elephant exhibit after one or two of the elephants die. The zoo currently has 3 in their Wild Asia exhibit- Patty, Maxine and Happy. Zoo officials say if two die, it would be inhumane to sustain

I also, as Betty posted above, have signed many petitions re Sunder. Today I tried to find an update on what is happening and this is the latest info I could find. (from Animal Rahat, 1 mo. ago)

I have an update on Sunder, the juvenile elephant we’ve been working to free from the clutches of the Jyotiba Temple, where he has been badly beaten and kept constantly chained (often by all fours, as you can see by the chain marks on his hind legs) and totally isolated in a dark chicken shed when not used as a living begging bowl. As you may recall, we had a breakthrough last fall when our worldwide advocacy campaign resulted in an official order from the Indian minister of environment and forests to transfer Sunder to an approved holding place. Everyone was overjoyed, but then the temple fought the order and officials backed off out of fear of religious retribution. To make matters even worse, the temple hid Sunder so that our vets couldn’t monitor him or provide the veterinary care that he needed.

The good news is that after months of attempting to locate Sunder, we have at last found where he’s being hidden. Someone was able to snap this photo but unable to have any contact with him. We are now bringing a new case to court to try to compel the temple trustees to release Sunder, so please keep your fingers firmly crossed.